Product thinking: defining the product before you start designing it

Recent changes in mobile operating systems, artificial intelligence, proactive experiences and the growth of the internet of things are some of the reasons why, at the end of the day, interface design is increasingly commoditized and less representative of the real value that UX Designer can add to the project.

The fact is that the interface (and the functionality behind it) only exists because before that there is a user problem that needs to be solved.

To think about a product (Product Thinking) means to explore the different ways in which different functionalities can be combined to solve the same problem.

Look how interesting this excerpt, extracted from this article here :

“The user experience is not a group of features; in fact, the user experience is the task that made users ‘hire’ that product to solve. Uber’s main experience is to easily take a taxi anytime, anywhere. Estimating how long the taxi takes to arrive is just one of the features that enhance this experience. But the Uber product works even if those features aren’t there. On the other hand, this time estimate cannot exist without the product being in the first place (without the certainty that it is possible to take a taxi at any time and place). There is an interrelation between…